The Incomplete Enchanter
core novel 1941 The Harold Shea Series
Record
| First published | 1941 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.06 (1,275 ratings, collected 2026-08-26) |
| Page count | 532 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780345314352 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
The Incomplete Enchanter collects two linked novellas first published in the magazine Unknown in 1940. Psychologist Harold Shea, working at a research institute that studies parallel realities governed by internally consistent magical logic, volunteers to test a colleague's symbolic-logic method for shifting between worlds. His first attempt misfires and strands him, without his intended equipment, inside the Scandinavian mythic cosmos of the Elder Edda, among gods and giants moving toward Ragnarok. Lacking modern tools, Shea must rely on wit and improvised spellcraft to survive. A second journey drops him into the world of Spenser's The Faerie Queene, where he allies with knights and enchanters against darker forces, refining the cross-world travel method that will carry him into further adventures in later volumes.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Harold Shea Series
- Series: The Harold Shea Series core; position 1 of 3 in the series' recorded order
- Author: L. Sprague de Camp
- Author: Fletcher Pratt
Notes
- From the series record (The Harold Shea Series): A classic-era pulp portal-fantasy series, originally serialized as five novellas in Unknown and other magazines between 1940 and 1954 and gathered into these three novel-length volumes. Psychologist Harold Shea uses a symbolic-logic method to travel into worlds built from real mythologies and literature (Norse myth, Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, the Kalevala, and Irish legend). Both authors are deceased; the sequence was later completed and reprinted in full as an omnibus, The Complete Compleat Enchanter.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series The Harold Shea Series: position 1 of 3: next The Castle of Iron (1950)
Sources
← The Harold Shea Series dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.